1. Justice vs. Vengeance
With your partner, research the meaning of either the
concept of justice or vengeance. The definition of the
term is a starting point, but it is not sufficient answer.
2. Justice vs. Vengeance
With your partner, discuss the concept of justice and
revenge. What is justice? What is vengeance? How are
they similar and how are they different?
4. .
List three similarities of justice and
vengeance.
List three differences.
Ticket Out the Door: The Count of Monte Cristo
5. With your small group,
keeping in mind the class’ view on justice,
review the Count Monte Cristo’s interaction
with Maximilian Morrel, Fernand,
Mercédès and Albert Mondego.
Character and Character Traits
Be prepared to share out your findings with the class.
Discuss: What is type of man is the
Count of Monte Cristo? Is he an
avenging angel or an angel of mercy?
6.
7. Count of Monte Christo
[H]e felt he had passed beyond
the bounds of vengeance, and
that he could no longer say,
“’God is for and with me.”
With your partner, discuss the meaning of the
statement : [H]e felt he had passed beyond the bounds of
vengeance, and that he could no longer say, “God is for and with
me.”
8. “I . . . have been taken by Satan into the
highest mountain in the earth, and when
there he . . . said he to me, ‘Child of
earth, what wouldst thou have to make
thee adore me?
. . . I replied, ‘Listen . . . I wish to be
Providence myself, for I feel that the
most beautiful, noblest, most sublime
thing in the world, is to recompense
and punish.’”
9. “. . . I replied, ‘Listen . . . I wish to be
Providence myself, for I feel that the
most beautiful, noblest, most sublime
thing in the world, is to recompense
and punish.’”
With your partner, analyze the quote.
What does this statement by the Count mean?
How does acting as Providence effect the
Count? What has he gained and what has he
lost?
Be prepared to share your thinking with the class.
10. (Reference__________________________)
A. Supporting Evidence
“Monsieur,” replied the count with a
chilling air…to fall easily on a topic.
(Reference: p. 203)
B. Supporting Evidence
Villefort astonishment redoubled at
this second thrust so forcibly made by
his strange adversary [the count].
(Reference: pp 208)
C. Supporting Evidence
“Then,” said Villefort, more and
more amazed, and really supposing
he was talking to a madman or a
mystic, “ you consider yourself one of
those extraordinary beings whom you
have mentioned?”
(Reference : page 205)
D. Supporting Evidence
“Yes, monsieur, I believe so…I shall
have to do with the king’s attorney.”
(Reference: page 209 )
Name Title
In becoming Providence, the innocent that was Edmond Dantès is lost, but
the Morrel family has an enormous influence on Monte Cristo’s ability to
experience humane qualities.
Claim:
In becoming Providence,
Dantès gave up his kindness,
and other humane feelings.
Point 1
The Morrel family has an enormous
influence on humanizing Monte
Cristo.
Point 2
A. Supporting Evidence
“Five and twenty thousand francs is
not a large sum ,” however replied
Monte Cristo with a tone so sweet
and gentle that it went to
Maximilian’s heart like the voice of a
father;
(Reference line 219)
B. Supporting Evidence
Maximilian had scarcely finished his
story , during which the count’s heart
swelled within him…
(Reference line : page 221)
C. Supporting Evidence
(Reference_________________)
D. Supporting Evidence
(Reference____________________)
11. (Reference__________________________)
A. Supporting Evidence
(Reference line 1)
B. Supporting Evidence
(Reference line 5)
C. Supporting Evidence
(Reference : line 9)
D. Supporting Evidence
(Reference: )
Name Title
Claim:
Point 1 Point 2
A. Supporting Evidence
(Reference line 13)
B. Supporting Evidence
(Reference line )
C. Supporting Evidence
(Reference_________________)
D. Supporting Evidence
(Reference____________________)
12. With your
small group,
discuss which characters
are primarily motivated
by money and which are
motivated by other
values.
CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES
Be prepared to share your evidence and
thinking with the class.
Gordon Gekko
(Wall Street)
Mahatma Gandhi
14. CHOICES AND CONTRASTS
In fiction, a foil is a
character who
contrasts with
another character
(usually the
protagonist) in order
to highlight particular
qualities of the other
character.
Foil (literature) - Wikipedia, the free
Editor's Notes
The teacher assigns half the class to briefly research either the term justice or vengeance. The students will share out their findings.
Pictured: Batman and The Punisher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punisher
The teacher or student record the attributes of the words justice and vengeance
Possible short article assignment:
http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-justice-and-revenge/
Analysis: Chapters 40–46
Dumas’s roots as a playwright are apparent throughout The Count of Monte Cristo,perhaps most obviously in this section. Rather than merely present Bertuccio’s history through a narrator, Dumas gives Bertuccio a long monologue. This monologue gives Bertuccio the opportunity to reveal all that we need to know about his life and his connection to other major characters, namely Villefort and Caderousse. The context of the monologue is, admittedly, very forced: we know that Monte Cristo and Abbé Busoni are the same person, so we are aware that Monte Cristo already knows all the information he is forcing Bertuccio to reveal. The fact that Dumas resorts to such an awkward setup demonstrates the strength of his commitment to tell the story through dialogue. In fact, there is hardly a plot development or piece of internal history in the entire novel that does not unfold through dialogue. It is by means of the dialogue over breakfast in Chapters 40 and 41, for instance, that we learn about Maximilian’s bravery and Monte Cristo’s true connection to Luigi Vampa. Likewise, it is during the course of the conversation between Albert and Mercédès that we learn that Mercédès does in fact recognize Monte Cristo as Dantès. This heavy reliance on dialogue makes Dumas’s novels seem like an extension of his dramatic work.
The unexpected appearance of Maximilian Morrel at Albert’s house in Chapter 40 is a crucial plot twist. This twist prevents The Count of Monte Cristo from being merely a catalogue of rewards straightforwardly followed by punishments. For ten years Monte Cristo has been preparing himself to feel and act upon nothing but hatred and vengeance. The appearance of Maximilian calls up a set of different emotions for which Monte Cristo is not prepared. He is suddenly filled with gratitude and warmth—two sentiments that he has prepared to leave behind. Maximilian’s presence complicates Monte Cristo’s attempts to divide his life neatly into years devoted to rewarding and years spent punishing. As we later see, all such contact with the Morrel family throws Monte Cristo into uncertainty and discomfort. By inserting the Morrel family into this portion of the novel, Dumas forces Monte Cristo to grapple with unforeseen difficulty, which makes the story line more interesting.
The portrait of Mercédès looking mournfully out to sea hints that she has never forgotten, or ceased to love, Dantès. Her costume, that of a Catalan fisherwoman, symbolically connects Mercédès to Dantès, who was a sailor during the period when the two were engaged. As we learn in a later chapter, Mercédès has spent years under the mistaken impression that Dantès died at sea when he was thrown from the rocks in Abbé Faria’s shroud. In her sad gaze toward the sea, then, she is focused on what she believes to be Dantès’s grave. Even Fernand is obviously aware that the portrait signifies Mercédès’s enduring feelings for Dantès, since he has it banished from his house. Mercédès’s ability to recognize Dantès even through the changes of time and hardship also indicates the depth of her feeling for him. She has remained so thoroughly connected to him in her thoughts that she is immediately able to see through his new exterior. Mercédès’s ability to recognize Dantès confirms what the portrait suggests: despite her marriage to Fernand, she has always remained loyal to Dantès in her heart.
Based on the text, have the students predict will the Count of Monte Cristo be an angel of mercy or avenging angel. Depending on how they predict the count will act, have the students place with Maximilian Morrel, Fernand, Albert and Mercédès Mondego on the graphic close to reflect how the count will treat the person.
[H]e felt he had passed beyond the bounds of vengeance, and that he could no longer say, “God is for and with me.”
This statement appears in Chapter 111, when Monte Cristo discovers that Edward de Villefort has been killed. Edward is the first innocent person whom Monte Cristo unwittingly strikes down, and this tragic injustice casts Monte Cristo’s entire project into doubt. Though he has already come close to killing the angelicValentine and has destroyed the lives of the noble Mercédès and Albert, up to this point, Monte Cristo has not wreaked any irreversible harm on anyone unworthy of punishment. In a burst of clarity, Monte Cristo realizes that, as a mere mortal, he is not capable of doling out retribution in such a way as to ensure that no innocents are harmed. He is not omniscient or omnipotent and therefore cannot determine or control what unforeseen effects his actions might have. For the rest of the novel, Monte Cristo grapples with doubt, ultimately deciding that only God has the right to act in the name of Providence. In order to atone for “pass[ing] beyond the bounds of vengeance,” Monte Cristo attempts to help Valentine and Maximilian attain ultimate happiness.
Have the students work in pairs to analyze the quote. What does this statement by the Count mean? How does acting as Providence effect the Count? What has he gained and what has he lost?
“I . . . have been taken by Satan into the highest mountain in the earth, and when there he . . . said he to me, ‘Child of earth, what wouldst thou have to make thee adore me?’ . . . I replied, ‘Listen . . . I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.’”
Monte Cristo makes this surprisingly frank admission to Villefort in Chapter 49, during their initial reunion. Monte Cristo’s obsession with reward and punishment, which he here confesses, is the driving force of the last two-thirds of the novel, and this statement provides excellent insight into Monte Cristo’s own concept of his mission. What is particularly striking about this passage is its demonstration that Monte Cristo associates his mission of vengeance not only with God but also with the devil. His characterization of his mission as both godlike and satanic is likely an attempt to frighten and unnerve Villefort. Yet this characterization foreshadows Monte Cristo’s later realization that there is in fact something slightly evil to his mission as well as something holy. Ultimately, Monte Cristo acknowledges that only God has the right to act in the name of Providence, and that, like the devil, he himself has overstepped his bounds by trying to act in God’s domain.
Have the students work in pairs to analyze the quote. What does this statement by the Count mean? How does acting as Providence effect the Count? What has he gained and what has he lost?
The teacher will make and support two claims. The teacher presents textual evidence and models his thinking for the four quotes that support point 1; the teacher will give textual support and explain his thinking for point 2. Have the students give evidence to support the claim that the Morrel family has a humanizing effect on Monte Cristo (point 2).
The teacher will give the students a claim or two. The students, working in pairs, will provide evidence to support the teacher’s claim(s).
NB: Page numbers may differ.
When Villefort is reintroduced in Chapter 49, he is portrayed as a rigid and inflexible “statue of the law,” exacting a form of justice that, according to Monte Cristo, is really no justice at all. Villefort is obsessed with laws and rules, and he lives for the prosecution of criminals. He cares little for human beings or for anything humanistic, such as art or entertainment; indeed, he is known as the “least curious man in Paris.” In Villefort we find an embodiment of all that is wrong with the state of societal justice at Dumas’s time. First, Villefort’s merciless application of the law parallels modern society’s own mercilessness to its citizens—particularly its poor citizens. In addition, Villefort is hypocritical, brazenly breaking the very laws he upholds, first by sentencing an innocent man to prison and then by attempting to kill his own newborn son. Villefort’s hypocrisy also has a strong parallel in modern society, which rewards immorality on the part of the wealthy and powerful. Danglars, for instance, is rewarded generously for his financial opportunism. According to Monte Cristo, modern societies are only thinly disguised tyrannies, oppressing the common man and refusing him his rights as an individual and his equal protection under the law. Villefort, then, is the living embodiment of—as well as the agent of—this tyranny.
The introduction of Haydée as a model of sumptuous, sensual Orientalism highlights Dumas’s Romantic perspective and contrasts sharply with the rigidity of other characters such as Villefort and Danglars. Haydée’s apartments, filled with silk cushions and diaphanous curtains, are decorated like something out of the collection of Eastern folktales known as The Arabian Nights. Haydée herself always dresses in her native Greek style, and even the food she eats is Oriental. The Romantic obsession with the exotic particularly favored such trappings of the Orient, a region considered incomparably mysterious. Romantics considered the women of the Orient far more desirable than European women, as well as more easily available. We see this Romantic notion of Oriental women in Dumas’s description of Haydée as reclining on the ground in a position that “though perfectly natural for an Eastern female, would have been deemed too full of coquettish straining after effect in a European.” The fact that Haydée can seem “perfectly natural” in a pose that would appear “strained” in a European emphasizes the degree to which the Romantics considered Oriental women more naturally alluring and sensual than European women. In addition, Haydée’s exotic nature rubs off on Monte Cristo, bolstering his own mystique. Not only does Monte Cristo boast Haydée as a member of his household, but his grotto on the island of Monte Cristo is decorated in Oriental style, and he often claims to consider himself more Oriental than Western. Indeed, most of Monte Cristo’s odd customs stem from the Orient. Haydée, with her dazzlingly unfamiliar beauty and her foreign way of life, typifies this Romantic notion of the exotic.
Chapters 50 and 51 demonstrate how perverse and almost inhuman Monte Cristo’s psychology has become. Positive emotions, rather than vengeance and hatred, rattle him in the way that negative emotions would rattle most people. For Monte Cristo, the possibility of good feelings bothers him most. Faced with the prospect of visiting the Morrel family, an experience he knows will be fraught with good feeling, he prepares himself by visiting Haydée. He reflects that he “require[s] a gradual succession of calm and gentle emotions to prepare his mind to receive full and perfect happiness, in the same manner as ordinary natures demand to be inured by degrees to the reception of strong or violent sensations.” This statement explicitly contrasts normal human psychology with Monte Cristo’s perverse emotional life. Indeed, just as Monte Cristo has predicted, when he is with the Morrels his perfect, almost frightening composure deserts him for the first time. Confronted with the depth of the Morrels’ gratitude, he becomes “pale as death, pressing one hand to his heart to still its throbbings.” In the face of true goodness, Monte Cristo experiences the strong physical reaction that most people experience upon encountering something particularly gruesome or dark. His obsession with vengeance has completely perverted his nature.
The Morrel family has an enormous influence on Monte Cristo’s estimation of humanity as a whole. Prior to meeting the Morrels, Monte Cristo believes that no human being is capable of feeling pure and true gratitude. He pessimistically announces to Franz and Albert that “man is an ungrateful and egotistical animal,” then disdainfully remarks to Peppino, whose life he has saved, “you have not then forgotten that I saved your life; that is strange, for it is a week ago.” Seeing the sincere and heartfelt thankfulness of the Morrels, however, Monte Cristo admits that Lord Wilmore would appreciate this gratitude and be “reconciled to mankind.” Lord Wilmore is, of course, just another of Monte Cristo’s aliases, and this statement is really an admission of Monte Cristo’s own change of heart. It is Monte Cristo who is “reconciled to mankind” after he sees the Morrels provide such incontrovertible proof of humankind’s capacity for gratitude.
Equally moving to Monte Cristo is the Morrels’ complete satisfaction with their lives. Though hardly wealthy, they consider themselves enormously rich and choose not to pursue any further wealth, as they know that doing so would require them to be apart more often. Monte Cristo is shocked to see people so perfectly content in their daily existence, and he takes the Morrels as proof that happiness is determined more by attitude than by absolute circumstances. In their gratitude and satisfaction, the Morrels demonstrate humanity’s capacity for goodness, which challenges Monte Cristo’s condemnation of mankind as an “ungrateful” and generally vile species.
Students can use this form for their presentations.
In small groups, have the students discuss which characters are primarily motivated by money and which are motivated by values. What those other values are is irrelevant for the moment. The importance is the students can set up a contrast between those motivated by material gains and those who are motivated by other values.
The students place the characters in the appropriate boxes.
The teacher either leads a discussion on how the character sets differ (e.g., Eugénie and Valentine) or have the students work in small groups to discuss the contrasting characters and share out with the class.
Have the students expand their focus from motivation to the more general characteristics or overall personality of the characters (e.g., Eugénie and Valentine or Madame Danglars and Mercédès). Discuss the concept of foil and have the students offer insights.
